PAROLEE DROPS MEDICAL LICENSE BID

Seymour Schlager, the affluent Highland Park scientist who tried to suffocate his wife with a pillow in 1991, won't be getting his medical license back anytime soon.

A hearing scheduled for Wednesday in Chicago before the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation was canceled after Schlager withdrew his petition to get back the license, said Maureen Squires, a department spokeswoman.

Squires said the Department of Professional Regulation, which regulates the medical profession, believed Schlager couldn't get his license back if he remained on parole.

Schlager was sentenced to 13 years in prison, but was paroled last summer.

"Apparently, his attorneys agreed with us because they dropped their petition," Squires said.

Barbara Stackler, one in a string of defense attorneys who have represented Schlager, disagreed.

Stackler said the petition had merit, but it was withdrawn because publicity over Schlager's case created an unfriendly climate before the hearing.

"We want to see at what point the heat cools down," Stackler said Wednesday. "We felt it prudent to withdraw temporarily."

Stackler said the unfriendly climate was created, in part, by inflammatory comments made in print and on television in November by Lake County Assistant State's Atty. George Strickland, who prosecuted Schlager.

Strickland had said it was "absolutely unfathomable" that Schlager would ever get his license back so soon after leaving prison. Strickland had also said it was "hard to imagine a more egregious violation of the Hippocratic oath than attempting to murder another human being."

Squires said Schlager can resubmit his petition when his parole ends. That will be on Aug. 14, 1999, said Nic Howell, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Schlager was charged with trying to kill his wife Diane on the morning of Feb. 12, 1991 by putting a pillow over her head. He was convicted later that year of attempted murder.

Schlager served 3 1/2 years of the 13-year sentence at Dixon Correctional Center, west of DeKalb. He participated in the state's work-release program from Dec. 29, 1995, until his release last year.

Schlager was granted permission to serve his parole in New Jersey, Howell said.

Schlager, 48, holds M.D. and Ph.D. degrees and was head of AIDS research at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago. He was licensed to practice in 1980 but was stripped of that license in 1993, Squires said.

Schlager, who pulled down a six-figure salary, lived with his wife and two children in their Highland Park home. Schlager's last known residence was the West Side Community Correctional Center in Chicago, a minimum-security work release prison, Howell said.

Last May, the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago denied Schlager's claim that his conviction should be overturned because he had ineffective counsel.